Seven Tips to Stay Connected
Covid-19 has forced people to work and learn from home - as a result our broadband and mobile networks are under more demand during the day than ever before. With more families online together during the day, we need to look at how we're using our connections to the internet.
Follow these seven tips, published by Ofcom to help you manage your data and get your household the bandwidth they need, for video streaming, virtual meetings and voice calls.
1 - Use your landline or VoIP if you can.
The mobile network is under high demand at the moment, due to more and more people making calls during the day. Alternatively, TTNC's VoIP Service allows you to make and recieve calls on a mobile App over the internet.
2 - Test the speed of your broadband.
It's always useful to not only know what speed your provider has told you that you should be getting, but also the actual upload and download speeds you're getting - Using a performance tester, such as Ookla's Speedtest to check your actual speeds, you can determine if you're getting what you are supposed to be. Make sure to do this at different times of the day, especially busy times af the evening to check consistency. You can look on your provider's website for ideas to improve you speeds.
3 - Move your router clear of other devices.
The speed into your property is one thing, interference for other electrical devices close to your router can slow things down too. Make sure that your router is far away from wireless devices, stereos, halogen lights and dimmer switches, and always place your router on a table or shelf, rather than the floor.
4 - Lower the demands on your connection.
The more devices that use your wifi, then lower the speed they all will have. If you can turn off wifi on devices that aren't being used, this will free up some much need bandwidth, giving you a much better quality Video chat. Limiting the use of other devices during working (or school) hours will help make the day move much more smoothly.
5 - Try wired rather than wireless.
For the best speeds, connect your computer to the router with an ethernet cable rather than wirelessly. Your connection will not only be quicker but it will be more reliable too. Powerline Adaptors, which allow the wired broadband to pass through the electrical cables are a great alternative.
6 - Plug your router directly into your main phone socket.
If you can, plug the router into the main phone socket, if this isn't accessible, or too far away from where you plan to put the router, then use a high-quality extension cable, which is as short as possible.
7 - Get advice from your broadband provider.
If you've tried all of these and you're having issues, get in touch with your broadband provider - their website should have some general advice as well as router-specific tips which can make the world of difference.
